Herd of feral pigs tear up San Ramon lawns

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By ABC7

SAN RAMON, Calif.

This has been going on for a few weeks, but neighbors say the pigs really tore up the neighborhood Tuesday night. They're so tired of putting their lawn back together that many of them have given up and left the mess.

At least 20 home owners in the Henry Ranch subdivision of San Ramon say a herd of feral pigs has been going hog wild on their lawns.

Trudy Cook says she saw 23 of them. She told us, "We just keep trying to put it back and it's like a jigsaw puzzle every morning, and it's very time consuming and it's frustrating."

A neighbor, John Christensen, posted a video of the pigs on YouTube. The pigs are coming down from the hills to root for grubs in the moist grass. Neighbors have tried everything from putting cayenne pepper in the grass to killing the grubs with chemicals.

"I put the motion light. They said if they saw the light, they will go away. It didn't help," said neighbor Rita Somaha.

The homeowners association hired an expert to trap the pigs, but for the last four days they've been bypassing every trap.

"I think they're too smart for it," said land owner Phil Henry.

The only pig they've been able to eradicate is one that was struck by a car last week.

The pig expert told us neighbors who use chemicals to kill the grubs are actually attracting the pigs, since pigs can smell the dead grubs.

"We were trying to think of something that would go off automatically," said neighbor
Harold Von Sosen.

Von Sosen was so desperate he hung sound-activated Halloween decorations around his yard. The Grim Reaper characters ironically say, "Let me get a hand on you."

"I know they've been around because they've torn up lawns near our house and they seem to stop short of the Grim Reaper here," said Von Sosen.

Either that or his grubs are all gone. They're still waiting for the first catch, but the pig expert says by end of the week he should have them rounded up.